A Strange Thanksgiving 13-05

My phone was in my hand before Deveron had even finished talking. Of course, that simply led to me glaring down at it. “No bars. Naturally. When in the history of horror has a cell phone ever had service when it really needed to? I’m pretty sure cell signals are actually allergic to monsters and serial killers.”

“You’re not far off,” Deveron remarked. “Well, about the monster thing at least. You know the effect that Alters give off when they’re using their abilities that screws up cameras and stuff like that? Some of that goes for cell phones too. It has something to do with interfering with the waves in the air.”

“Luckily,” I replied while digging in my pocket, “Professor Dare knows my luck by now and planned ahead.” First, I took the little blue shirt button and ran my thumb over it a few times to activate the tracking beacon that she had mentioned before shoving it back in my pocket. Then I uncapped the marker and knelt down to write on the sidewalk in all capital letters, ‘AT KOREN’S NEW HOUSE. FOMORIAN SPELL AROUND HOUSE. BAD BAD BAD SUPER BAD DID I MENTION BAD.’

That done, I slipped the pack of strawberry chewing gum out, opening up a piece to pop in my mouth. As soon as I was chewing, I spoke up. “Deveron and I just got to Koren’s house, and there’s this magic barrier we just walked past, and now we can’t get out. He says it’s a Fomorian spell. Which, apparently, is really bad. We don’t know where Koren or her family are, so please come help right freaking now.”

By the time I finished speaking, the words on the pavement, the ones that I’d written in the marker, were already rearranging themselves. Now the message had been changed to read, ‘On the way.’

Seeing that, I let out a breath of relief. Not that everything was magically fixed, but honestly, after everything that had happened, I had pretty much expected the messages to fail to get through. Considering the luck I’d had with that sort of thing so far, it wouldn’t exactly have been surprising.

Through it all, Deveron didn’t question any of it. He just stood there, pistol in hand while carefully observing the surrounding area. He had positioned himself so that he was between me and the house. When I finished, he started to turn to say something. Before he could get a word out, however, a figure appeared out of the darkness, coming down the sidewalk toward us. I’d barely noticed it when Deveron caught me by the arm, yanking me back behind him while pointing the pistol that way. Again, shielding me with his body. He stood that way, watching the approaching figure for a moment until the identity became obvious. “Wyatt,” he abruptly announced, lifting a hand to stop the man. “Wait, there’s a–”

“Fomorian blood passage shield,” Wyatt interrupted, head bobbing rapidly as he came to a stop right on the edge of the shield. “I know. I checked. I always check for magic every time I go anywhere. Why don’t you? Why doesn’t everyone? You should never, ever walk into any new place without checking. You shouldn’t walk into any old place if you haven’t been there in more than a day. You shouldn’t–”

Raising a hand, I interrupted. “Um, blood shield? I don’t see any blood.”

Wyatt looked to me, and I saw the distress and urgency in his eyes. “Blood shield. It’s—it’s not made of blood, it only lets people of a certain blood through, only activates for people of a certain blood. Right now, this one is our blood. Our blood. Our family.” He nodded toward Deveron. “His, yours, mine, Koren’s, Abigail’s. Our mom’s blood. Both sides of the family. Our blood. They want our blood.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Deveron glanced to me and then back that way. “Listen, we don’t know where Koren, her father, or… or Abigail are.” Something in his voice dropped a bit, the emotion getting to him before he pushed on through it. “But if they’re in that house, that means they’re in there with a Fomorian. One that isn’t interested in hiding anymore. If it’s shown itself this much, that means–”

Wyatt’s eyes widened abruptly. “It’s taking them.” As soon as the words left his mouth, I saw all the hesitation, awkwardness, and general silliness leave the somehow simultaneously short and gawky man. He started to take a step closer, about to cross the magical line and trap himself in with us.

Deveron, however, quickly stepped that way while putting his hand up again. “Stop, wait. Don’t.” Putting a hand against the shield as close to Wyatt as he could, he spoke calmly but urgently. “You need to stay here. Flick just contacted the school, so they should be on their way. But they won’t be able to get through the spell immediately. They’ll have to knock it down first. Which means you need to stand right here with Flick and so you can both explain exactly what’s going on as soon as they get here.”

“Whoa, whoa,” I interrupted, spinning that way. “What do you mean, ‘stand right here with Flick’? Flick isn’t going to be standing right here, Flick is going inside to look for Koren and her family.”

“Listen to me, Flick,” Deveron spoke sharply. “No. This is not within your training. This is far beyond anything you’ve seen so far. You’re not going in there. You’re staying right here with Wyatt while I go inside and–” His expression dropped, and he clearly had to force himself to continue. “And find them.”

“If you were actually acting as our mentor the whole time like you should’ve been,” I pointed out, “you’d understand that these past few months haven’t exactly been a normal training schedule. But that doesn’t matter. None of that matters. Koren and Abigail are in trouble. That’s what matters. I’m going in. I can either go in with you, or I can wait until you leave and then follow you. Your choice. But either way, I’m going. And the longer we stand here arguing about it, the worse things are in there.”

For a second, I thought Deveron was going to keep debating with me. Instead, he let out a long breath and looked toward Wyatt. “You’re good with magic, especially security magic. I know you are. So listen. You need to start working on bringing this shield down, okay? You need to bring it down so that Dare and the others can come right through as soon as they get here. Because we’ll need them.”

Wyatt looked nervous, shifting his weight while his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down noticeably. “I—I’ve never worked with Fomorian magic.” His nerves were clearly getting to him as he stammered, “I-I don’t know that much about it. Wh-what if I mess up? What if I set it off? What if I make it worse?”

I could tell that Deveron really wanted to move. But he stepped right up to the shield, pressing his hand against it. “Wyatt, calm down. Listen to me. Look.” He met the other man’s gaze. “I believe in you. You can do this, all right? This is what you do. You’ve got this. I am going to go in there with Flick and we are going to save your sister and your niece. But we need back-up. So, you are going to take down this shield so that when that back-up comes, they’ll be able to come in and help. You can do it. They thought the shield would stop any help from getting to us, but they didn’t count on you. They didn’t notice you. The shield is set to our blood, to your blood. Your family. And magic is your thing. So bring it down.”

There were still obvious tears in Wyatt’s eyes, but his head jerked up and down a few times before the poor guy gave a loud, awkward sniff. “B-be careful,” he insisted, putting his hand close to the shield.

With a short nod, Deveron turned back to me, face serious. “Stay right with me. If I tell you to do something, do it. No questions. Watch my back, and if you notice something, speak up. And whatever you do, don’t go running off on your own, no matter what you see or hear. Do you understand?”

No jokes or off-hand remarks came to mind. Not then. Not with this. I nodded. “I—yes. I understand.” After hesitating briefly, I added, “This is bad, right? Like, really bad. Call up all the help we can bad.”

“It is,” he nodded. “But Dare and the others are on their way. That’s the best we can do right now.”

“What…” I bit my lip, hesitating indecisively before pushing on. “What if it wasn’t? I—Seller, my ancestor—my mother’s ancestor, the one who works for Garden. He gave me a way to contact him in case of an emergency. If the shield’s linked to our blood, our family, he could go through it too.”

There was no hesitation. Deveron just spoke sharply. “Do it. Summon him, whatever you have to do.”

So I did. Straightening up a little while closing my eyes to remember the exact phrase that the man had given me, I carefully recited, “Buyer’s Remorse, Seller’s Recourse.”

As soon as the words were out, I looked toward Wyatt. “You know Seller, from Eden’s Garden? He’s our ancestor. I… I don’t know if you knew that already or—or what, but he is. And he’ll be coming here, coming to help. So when he shows up, um, tell him what’s going on, just like the others, okay?”

The wide-eyed man bobbed his head, hand moving up toward me, though it didn’t cross the shield. “Please—please be careful. I can’t—I never had a—I don’t know what—I can’t—please. Please.”

My own voice was quiet. “I know. It’s… just tell them, Wyatt. Tell them, and get the shield down. We’re counting on you, okay? Send Seller in and bring the shield down so the rest of them can come in.”

Then Deveron and I were walking, making our way across the grass of the well-maintained lawn. He took the lead, ordering me to stay right on his heels. With each step as we approached the house, I felt the sense of unease rise, covering me like a thick blanket that I couldn’t shake off. Every little night sound, every bare hint of movement, it all drew my attention like a hawk noticing a mouse in a field.

That was being generous. In this particular case, it was more akin to the mouse noticing the hawk.

A small garden gnome in the flowerbed drew my attention. Somehow, its eyes seemed to follow us, that unnerving, creepy smile that had been painted on its face somehow seeming to widen as we drew closer. The shadows played tricks with the thing, adding cruel dimensions to its frozen expression.

We took another step, and I snapped my hand out to catch Deveron’s arm. “Wait. W-wait a second.”

Immediately, he turned to me, eyes scanning everywhere. “What? Are you all right? What happened?”

Before he could object or say anything, I took a step to the flower garden and went down to one knee. Hand tight on my staff, I raised the weapon up between us, just in case. Then I leaned close enough to peer at the thing, keeping the end of the staff at the ready while Deveron stood directly over me.

My gaze found… a cheap little gnome. Its body was clearly made of whatever ceramic or clay it was supposed to be, and some of the distinct features were chipping off. Despite my feeling, the thing was just an ordinary garden gnome. So, with a sigh, I glanced up to the thing’s face while starting to rise.

The eyes were real.

A strangled noise of shock escaped me as I jerked backward reflexively before covering my mouth with a hand. Deveron’s hand found my shoulder and yanked me up to my feet while he pointed the gun at the thing. Then, for a second, we both just stood there, staring in horror at the thing at our feet.

Yes, the entire body was a real garden gnome. It was just a cheap little lawn ornament. But where the painted-on eyes were supposed to be there were instead a couple of holes. And in those holes, there were real human eyes. They had been shoved inside the thing. But it got worse. Because somehow, those eyes were still alive, still working. They blinked, moved around in their improvised sockets, and clearly focused on us. It was watching us, staring at us in a way that made me want to whimper.

Deveron raised his pistol to focus on the thing, clearly about to shoot it before he thought better and shook his head. “Don’t know whose eyes those are,” he pointed out. “We might… might be able to fix it.” There was doubt, as well as disgust in his voice. But he lowered the pistol and gestured. “They probably already knew we were here as soon as we crossed the barrier. And even if they didn’t, they definitely do now. So, let’s go in and see what the hell they want.”

With a glance back toward the horrible gnome, I followed him to the front door. Not bothering with anything subtle, Deveron simply pointed that flintlock pistol of his and pulled the trigger. A thin red beam shot from the barrel. As it hit the door, the entire thing glowed briefly before vanishing entirely.

Noticing my look, Deveron muttered under his breath, “Two modes. First it absorbs inanimate objects. After that, it can either shoot projectiles made of the same material, or expel the absorbed object.”

I nodded. “So, absorb a door and shoot wooden bullets. Or shoot the entire door itself.”

“Pretty much,” he confirmed before stepping through the now-exposed doorway. “Stay close.”

Together, the two of us stepped into the dimly lit foyer. There were no lights on. The place was lit only by a few candles that had been placed here and there. Ahead, I could see an archway leading into what looked like a dining room that was lit by more candles. To the right there was a stairway leading up, along with a few pictures of Koren and her parents. And to the left, there was an open space that led to a nearly pitch-black living room where I could make out only a few shapes of furniture.

Turning his head slightly, Deveron listened intently. After a few seconds of that, I saw him pale noticeably, even in the candle-light. Without a word to me, he went straight for the archway that led to the dining room. I followed, hand tight enough on my own staff that it almost hurt.

We emerged into a genuine horror show. The sight in front of us was almost enough to make me lose my dinner. Bile rose in my throat even as a strangled, horrified noise made its way out of me.

The long table had been set as if for a Thanksgiving feast. There were places for about sixteen people, complete with plates, silverware, napkins, and glasses. Throughout the rest of the table were platters of various delicious looking food. That much, at least, looked normal.

What was decidedly not normal, was what happened to be sitting at most of the place settings down either side of the long table. Incubators. An incubator sat atop each chair. And in each incubator, there was an infant, a baby. They didn’t look like they could be more than a few days or weeks old at the most.

All of the babies was asleep. But that wasn’t the worst of it. Each one had what looked like an actual umbilical cord leading from the baby’s stomach, out of the incubator, and leading along the table to the far end. The fleshy cords all linked up together into a single one, which led up and into the stomach of the figure who sat there, smiling at us.

My first guess was that the man was a horrible burn victim. His skin appeared to be literally peeling off in various places. He was almost like a half-melted candle. At one point, he had clearly been handsome and tall, with obviously athletic features. Now… well now it looked like there was another face entirely hidden beneath the half-melted one.

Beside the terrifying figure, in another chair, sat Koren’s mom. Abigail. My sister. The woman looked like she was barely conscious. Her head kept drifting from one side to the other, and her eyes were half-closed. She was mumbling something, but I couldn’t make it out.

And behind her stood Koren. At first I thought her hands were braced against her mother’s back. But a second later, to my horror, I realized that her arms were actually buried partway inside the other woman. Koren’s hands were inside her own mother, through some kind of hole in her back.

As soon as we stepped in, Koren’s eyes snapped up and she blurted, “F-Flick!”

The half-melted man who stood there simply raised a hand to stop her. “Whoa, easy there,” he cautioned without looking away from us. “Remember what I said? Stop pumping your mother’s heart and well, it stops. Keep going,” he gestured with the hand. “Pump, pump, pump. There you go, squeeze, release, squeeze, release, that’s right.”

Focusing on Deveron and me, the figure gave the smile of an indulgent father. “I’m sorry, you know how teenagers can be. She was getting a bit… unruly. So I gave her something to do.” He waggled his fingers at us. “Idle hands and all that.”

Head tilting then, he focused on Deveron. “Now, you’re a bit of a surprise. Either you found a way past the shield already, or… hmmm. Interesting. Very, very interesting.”

Making a noise of anger, Deveron raised his pistol. Before he could do anything, however, the figure tutted his finger back and forth. “I wouldn’t,” he cautioned before gesturing to the sleeping babies and the umbilical cord that led to him. “Anything happens to me, and well… there’ll be a lot of very unhappy parents, I’ll tell you that much.”

“Fomorian,” Deveron snapped then, the hate and fury in his voice filling the room. “Let them go. Now.”

For a moment, the figure seemed to consider that. He tapped a finger against his chin. “Hmm. You know,” he spoke carefully while starting to peel some of that melting skin off his own face. The flesh came off easily, revealing an entirely different, more angular and grayish-green face beneath. “I don’t think I will.”

Smiling entirely pointed teeth at us, the Fomorian popped the balled up bit of flesh into his mouth, chewing it up before swallowing. He was literally eating his own disguise, picking a bit out of his teeth with a sharp fingernail before peeling more of it off to snack on.

Choking back the urge to throw up once more, I spoke up, demanding, “Well, obviously you want us here for a reason. Or wanted me here for a reason. So what is it? You’re looking for my mother? You’re working for Fossor? You want something. What? What do you want?”

Peeling the last of the skin that covered his face off, the Fomorian rose to his feet. As he stood, there were several cracking and popping sounds as his bones rearranged themselves. “Oh, I’m most certainly not working for Fossor. My people don’t ally themselves with such… creatures. No, certainly not. And as for what I am here for, does a Maker truly need a reason to visit their creation?”

“What then?” I demanded, fear, confusion, and anger all warring inside me as I glanced from the monster to Koren and her mother, then back again. “What creation are you talking about? Our family, my mother’s rebellion, Crossroads itself, what?!”

In response, the Fomorian cracked his neck from one side to the other while regarding me. Moving two fingers to pluck off the last bit of loose, hanging skin from his neck, he popped it into his mouth. He started to speak while chewing thoughtfully. “Well, you see, we may claim any and all of those, given the right… point of view. Some with more pride than others. But,” he held up a finger, “none would count as our greatest creation. That would be the thing we have sacrificed so much to reunite ourselves with. Our most important, wonderful, and irreplaceable experiment. Our shining triumph. The most powerful weapon in our entire biological arsenal.

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Well, that’s clearly nothing important and not at all horrifying, is it? Clearly just another fun and cuddly chapter of Flick’s Thanksgiving break.

Thanks for reading, you guys. And thanks for voting too. We’re still up around 17 on the Top Web Fiction voting, which is quite cool. 🙂 If you’d like to help us stay up there, or get even higher, you can feel free to renew your vote (or cast it for the first time), by clicking right here. Thanks!

Also, just another reminder that there will be two more mini-interludes coming up soon. So keep an eye out for them. 😉

Today’s chapter tags are: Abigail Fellows, Deveron Adams, Felicity Chambers, Flick, Koren Fellows, Well I Don’t Know About You Guys – But I Need To Watch Some Fun Fluffy Cartoons For Awhile., Wyatt Is Consistently Disappointed That So Few People Are As Batman Paranoid As Him., Wyatt Rendell

lol, yeah it’s a thing I’ve done from the start. She doesn’t need to be, at all, but it’s a habit that’s as ingrained now as adding joke tags. Every chapter tags her as both Flick and Felicity Chambers.

“By the time I finished speaking, the words on the pavement, the ones that I’d written in the marker, were already rearranging themselves. Now the message had been changed to read, ‘On the way.’”
Me: Well, good to know those safeguards Flick was given actually functioned properly in the spell’s AoE. Now the question is, “Will the reinforcements give there fast enough?”.

““His, yours, mine, Koren’s, Abigail’s. Our mom’s blood. Both sides of the family. Our blood. They want our blood.””
Me: I am not feeling good about this now. What are the Formorians planning to do?

““If you were actually acting as our mentor the whole time like you should’ve been,” I pointed out, “you’d understand that these past few months haven’t exactly been a normal training schedule. But that doesn’t matter. None of that matters. Koren and Abigail are in trouble. That’s what matters. I’m going in. I can either go in with you, or I can wait until you leave and then follow you. Your choice. But either way, I’m going. And the longer we stand here arguing about it, the worse things are in there.””
Me: Sometimes Flick’s stubbornness is admirable, but this isn’t one of those times imo. She’s more a liability than she thinks.

“That would be the thing we have sacrificed so much to reunite ourselves with. Our most important, wonderful, and irreplaceable experiment. Our shining triumph. The most powerful weapon in our entire biological arsenal.
“Homo Sapiens.””
Me: I’m calling bullshit on that.

…Well this definitely places the Fomorian assault on Desoto into a entirely new context but it also raises questions as well. The biggest being whether or not they were merely testing humanity; which would explain the experimentation they’d been doing as well as the disparity in terms of military strength when we first found out about them earlier.

There is one other thing that comes to mind after reading this; it had been mentioned on SB that the Fomorians and Seosten were near equals in power; could they be rivals? Their interactions with humanity certain point towards the possibility; the Seosten seek to control them but the Fomorians… created them.

SirHades: There is one other thing that comes to mind after reading this; it had been mentioned on SB that the Fomorians and Seosten were near equals in power; could they be rivals? Their interactions with humanity certain point towards the possibility; the Seosten seek to control them but the Fomorians… created them.

Me: well, that might explain the Seosten prophecy that Humanity will destroy them. The Bystander Effect may be the Seosten’s attempt to restrict Humanity’s power growth. Considering the weapons that technology has created, imagine what Humanity could create if they had widespread knowledge/understanding of magic as well.

Sometimes the numbers go higher, but most of the time they don’t use any system comprehensible by humans. This last Chapter is, in my opinion, an i to the power of Cthulu’s constant, give or take an abomination.

Oh, I’m most certainly not working for Fossor. My people don’t ally themselves with such… creatures. No, certainly not.

No Fomorian/Hiding Man/Whatever the fuck your name is. You don’t get to say that. You don’t get to look down on that evil piece of shit when you are literally holding babies hostage and forcing a girl to pump her own mother’s heart to keep her alive. Because you are just as bad as him.

I might be jumping the gun a bit on that comparison, but holy shit was that horrifying. I really hope the eyes in that gnome didn’t come from Kenneth.

… Oh, and the Fomorians claim to have created humans. That explains why he was smiling “like an indulgent father.” So many implications are raised by this.

Also, Flick, while I can’t fault you for assuming that you’re the target after everything you’ve been through so far, I’m pretty sure Koren was his target this time.

I could tell that Deveron really wanted to move. But he stepped right up to the shield, pressing his hand against it. “Wyatt, calm down. Listen to me. Look.” He met the other man’s gaze. “I believe in you. You can do this, all right? This is what you do. You’ve got this. I am going to go in there with Flick and we are going to save your sister and your niece. But we need back-up. So, you are going to take down this shield so that when that back-up comes, they’ll be able to come in and help. You can do it. They thought the shield stop any help from getting to us, but they didn’t count on you. They didn’t notice you. The shield is set to our blood, to your blood. Your family. And magic is your thing. So bring it down.”

I’m pretty sure there should be a “would” in this sentence from the passage I just quoted.

They thought the shield stop any help from getting to us, but they didn’t count on you.

No Fomorian/Hiding Man/Whatever the fuck your name is. You don’t get to say that. You don’t get to look down on that evil piece of shit when you are literally holding babies hostage and forcing a girl to pump her own mother’s heart to keep her alive. Because you are just as bad as him.

He doesn’t seem to have a lot of high ground there, does he?

I’m pretty sure there should be a “would” in this sentence from the passage I just quoted.

Eigh, you’re going to need to kick it up a more Cerulean, this chapter didn’t even get an “ick” out of me. But the manual heart pumping is a nice touch, don’t think I’ve seen that before.

Though, really, at this point I’d just as soon shoot the guy and let the babies die. I mean, the thing about hostages is for them to work the people you are holding said hostages between you and them have to care about what happens to the hostages. I care more about the family I know (such as maybe my niece and half-sister, or maybe you know my daughter and grand daughter) more than the people I don’t know, such as a random assortment of babies.
Really, the only reason I wouldn’t just straight up kill this guy is on the off chance he might actually tell us how to undo what he’s done to Abigail. Unlikely though that is. For me, the babies are a non-factor.
I know that is damn cold of me, probably near if not at zero kay, but, well, what can I say? I’m just not the sort of person this thing would work on because if it takes killing sixteen innocents now so this guy doesn’t go on to kill even more people then, yeah, I’m the kind of guy willing to make that call.

I’m guessing the formorians probably took some other version of hominid and made it into H. sapiens, probably how we branched off from the Neanderthals if you want to get into that. Could just very well be some kind of hyperbole but we’ll see in a bit.

I do have to say though, I like the way formorians operate, Bonesaw was always one of my favorite characters and bio-tech is a bit of a weakness of mine. If this guy wasn’t such an arrogant prick I’d love to see more of his work.
I get the feeling I will be seeing more of his work very soon though.

Eagerly waiting Friday’s update. And the interlude on Wednesday as well, but Friday’s is where the real fun is going to be.

Eigh, I’m not a “shoot first ask questions never” kind of guy. I even said I’d let him talk to see if he would let something spill that could be of use.
I am all for letting people monologue if they want to. It’s classic! I’d be a bit upset if they didn’t monologue! It’s how you know they are real villains and not just fakers!
And, like you said, it stalls for time for more help to arrive.

I’m just saying I’m not the sort of person that would this sort of hostage situation would work on. If it was just the babies then, nope, don’t care. However the fact that one of my main targets to protect (in this case Abigail) is in a very precarious position that sort of hostage situation would work on me just fine.

Eigh, you’re going to need to kick it up a more Cerulean, this chapter didn’t even get an “ick” out of me. But the manual heart pumping is a nice touch, don’t think I’ve seen that before.

lol, maybe I’ll see what I can do.

Though, really, at this point I’d just as soon shoot the guy and let the babies die. I mean, the thing about hostages is for them to work the people you are holding said hostages between you and them have to care about what happens to the hostages. I care more about the family I know (such as maybe my niece and half-sister, or maybe you know my daughter and grand daughter) more than the people I don’t know, such as a random assortment of babies.

You’re a very different person than Flick. 😉 And Deveron is a man who has had his children as babies yanked away from him and spent decades searching for them. He’d never do that (or in this case, even worse by killing them) to anyone else.

I hope Flick is a better person than I am, and I understand Deveron’s thoughts on it as well.
I’m just stating that the particular situation with the babies wouldn’t be effective on some people, probably would be on most people but I don’t think someone like Ruthers would hesitate for one nanosecond to pull the trigger on this thing.even if it did mean killing the kids.

You know, it’s almost like he set it up specifically for Flick (since he was surprised to see Deveron at first, I get the feeling he knows their relation now already, probably some ‘genetic markers’ sense he has) to make her not attack him right away, almost like he knew what type of person she was…
Naaaaaaaaaw. Couldn’t be.

The Fomorians presumably pride themselves in working with life, which is why they don’t like Fossor. Any way to get the Fomor and Fossor to attack each other? That would be… satisfying. Especially if Ammon’s little trick worked on Fomorians. They would just deafen themselves to avoid it, but the initial shock would be rather interesting. Oh wait: “You like my family’s blood, let me tell you where to find more of it. Fossor never lets mother out, but he does let my half-brother out some times – just wait for him.”

If humanity is a Fomor creation, then the Seosten have good reason to distrust them.

So, that part of the Bystander Effect that screws with cameras also blocks cell phone service- only fitting that happens, given the horror movie vibe that what’s going on at the Fellows’ house & with Nocen attacks in general gives off. Good thing that Dare provided all those communication devices, and that she had that thing from Seller on her.

That shield is keyed to only allow blood relatives of Koren through- really not good, as it means that this is very much a trap that Flick & Deveron just walked into, giving that Formorian a shot at more of whatever he thinks he can get from that bloodline.

Though Wyatt checking for magic might have been a little paranoid, it does seem like a useful survival skill, especially under the present circumstances. If they don’t already know how to do this, Flick, Deveron, & their friends really ought to ask Wyatt for a few pointers after the present situation is resolved.

Really hoping that the eyes in that gnome weren’t Kenneth’s (as well as the flesh suit the Formorian was wearing.)

Deveron’s weapon is neat- reminiscent of one of the abilities of a certain tiny, cute, super-powered brunette from another story & universe….

Though what they find in the dining room- damn, that’s pretty fucked up- if the Fomorians are a race of Bonesaws, this one seems to be adding to the FUBAR factor by borrowing a page from how Jack broke Riley in how he’s neutralized Koren by forcing her to concentrate on her mother. If Abigail survives this, this’ll be one of the times where the ability to mess with memories will be a good thing, while if Koren makes it through this, she’s definitely going to need to book a lot of time with Crossroads’ staff shrinks. Though where did he get all those babies from, and just what is up with that connection between their umbilical cords & his stomach that will supposedly kill them if something that happens to them?

And then that thing at the end’s another wham moment & cliff-hanger- if that Fomorian isn’t blowing smoke, and they really did create humanity as some sort of weapon to use against their Seosten rivals, it would provide some context. For example, it’d explain why the Seosten have been so interested in manipulating humanity, and especially Heretics. Plus, if humanity is just bacteria in a petri dish & lab rats to the Fomorians, it would say something about their sick experiments, the invasion of DeSoto, the various incursions since, and why they might think someone related to Joselyn, such as Koren, has something of particular interest to them.

Well I Don’t Know About You Guys – But I Need To Watch Some Fun Fluffy Cartoons For Awhile

Probably a good idea, though perhaps some people might want to wait until the current Formorian situation is resolved, so they can just flush things all at once.

Though Wyatt checking for magic might have been a little paranoid, it does seem like a useful survival skill, especially under the present circumstances. If they don’t already know how to do this, Flick, Deveron, & their friends really ought to ask Wyatt for a few pointers after the present situation is resolved.

They really should.

Really hoping that the eyes in that gnome weren’t Kenneth’s (as well as the flesh suit the Formorian was wearing.)

Those would both be pretty nasty.

if the Fomorians are a race of Bonesaws, this one seems to be adding to the FUBAR factor by borrowing a page from how Jack broke Riley in how he’s neutralized Koren by forcing her to concentrate on her mother.

I hadn’t thought about it that way, but yeah, I can see that connection.

while if Koren makes it through this, she’s definitely going to need to book a lot of time with Crossroads’ staff shrinks

More work for Klassin Roe.

Probably a good idea, though perhaps some people might want to wait until the current Formorian situation is resolved, so they can just flush things all at once.

Born of Prayers is right, the effect does dampen as they grow accustomed to it and need more powerful Strangers to provoke a similar reaction. However, that’s not to say that they don’t grow addicted to it. That’s what makes a lot of them as effective (and terrifying to Alters) as they are.

Reblogged this on Twilit Dreams Circle and commented:
You know, that reveal at the end doesn’t really surprise me at this point. I expected some being to proclaim itself the maker of humanity, and for said being to eventually gets its teeth kicked in by said creation.